Leadership Bonus. Nick Lorence led everyone. $7,205. He earned that. Bobby Gujral. The master of bonuses. $6,556. Natalie Wagner and Patrick Rieger each got $3,300. A guy in New Zealand got $21,000. Never be accused of thinking too small.

Don’t forget the other bonuses. I shouldn’t probably call them that because the money is excellent. Jahara Lewis. She tops everyone with over $2,000 on her monthly training bonus. Thomas King picked up an MGA Longevity Bonus for $1,000. A whole bunch of guys got $1,000 in Agent Tenure Bonus. Pascal Amar, Coral Ashe, Nicholas Bray, Svitlana Matkivska, Dwayne Watson. These bonuses don’t happen by accident. Pick which one you want and get it. In fact, you can have more than one. American Income Life doesn’t limit you so don’t limit yourself.

Milestones are important in your life personally and as an organization. Birthdays, anniversaries. I know those who have overcome chemical dependency will often celebrate that date. Hitting new goals and landmarks is how we measure progress and improvement. I remember the first time we broke $1 million. Rick took us to the Metropolitan Grill downtown Seattle. We had steaks and strawberry shortcake. For some reason, things taste better when the accompany a victory.

This week, Altig hit a new milestone. For the first time in our 32 year history, we as a company topped and average sale of $1,000. $1,026.19 to be exact. You’ll sometimes hear people talk about “the old days” when we used to write $500 deals. But here’s the reality. That was 12-15 years ago. And every year we have inflation, and every year a dollar is worth a little less than the previous. So when you see a number like $1,000 and compare it to another era, that’s kind of unfair. Because they’re actually almost worth the same.

Another thing I want to point out, is that 12-15 years ago, we were primarily a supplemental life carrier. We’ve grown up. Quite frankly, in many of the homes we go into now, we are their exclusive carrier. They don’t have anybody else. We have a bigger responsibility and are compensated accordingly. Fortunately, most of our guys weren’t even around when we sold small deals and this is all they’ve ever worked.

This has been a pretty strong upward movement. There are two considerations on bigger deals. One was a fear for quality. And that hasn’t happened at all. In fact, the opposite has happened. Alongside the size sale increasing, Net to Gross has also skyrocketed. People love the value that they get and the respect it all the more. The other concern is closing ratio possibly being affected. And that shouldn’t be an issue. In every home, there has to be a conversation about affordability. If you think about it, that’s $19 a week to protect your family in the worst day of their life. The two questions are, “Can they afford it?” and “Do they understand the value?” You can’t do much about the first one, except maybe down close. But you are totally in control of the second. Make sure they know how important this is.

It’s trivia time.

First question.How many people last week (10/7/13 turn in), made 18 presentations, and didn’t write any business? Answer: None. I know we say see 20 people (5 people in 4 days or 4 people in 5 days), but I’ll cut you some slack. In fact, at 18 presentations or more, the average agent, averaged $4,745 in ALP. That’s six figures.

Okay. Let’s make it a little harder now. Question 2. How many people saw their 18 people, and didn’t write at least the minimum $1,150 bonus level. Answer: 1. One guy wrote only $840. He usually does a lot better than that, but everyone has an off week. So if you see 18 people, you are almost guaranteed to write business. And you have a 96% chance of at least bonusing.

Question 3. Let’s lower the standards now a little bit. How many people saw just 16 people and yet blanked? 1. Yes, one person did see 16 people and not write a deal. Again. A rare, rare exception. 98% of agents who saw at least 16 people wrote business. And hitting bonus at 89% of the time! You will almost always be at the maximum 15% level, because you’ll almost always bonus.

Now let’s slide down to 12 presentations.

Question 4. If you saw only 12 people this week, what % wrote at least $1,150? 57%. And that’s before it is checked. 8% of the business shakes out as it goes into underwriting. So 49% will qualify for minimum bonus. And if you’re only hitting minimums 49% of the time, you will rarely make it to the 15% level. Because that requires three minimums in a row.

So stop and think about that for a minute. Last week I talked about how narrow the distance often is between success and failure. If you see 18 people or more this week, you have a 98% chance of bonusing (and guaranteed advance for new guys)….but if you see 12 or fewer, you have less than half a chance of bonusing…and reaching maximum bonus (3 weeks in a row) is very difficult. That’s just a statistic reality. So. Final question. How many people are you going to see this week?

We’re reviewing Ilija’s 10 points of Culture. #9. Don’t let people fire you. Terminate those that don’t respect the contract that you made with them and fulfill the agreement. Your agency isn’t for everyone your agency needs to be special forces. The Navy Seal Team 6 of business.

You are not a quitter, so don’t keep quitters around. You are not a liar so don’t keep liars around. You’re not a loser so don’t keep losers around. The strength of your agency is impacted by its weakest link. In order to preserve the culture, you need to help people that don’t belong in your agency to move on. If you don’t, you will lose the respect of those that can take the journey and be successful.

By this approach, you will lose less people and more people will be successful than if you let them fire you. Even people that you split ways with will respect you more.

I’m out of the office this week, so spend a few minutes recognizing the great things that happened in YOUR office this week!